Nostalgia......yesteryear Actresses

I prefer the poker face better.

Noorie

M A D H U B A L A - Thee we remember.
Thanks Reeth for those beautiful pictures of hers and also the write up.

Millions of lives have been lost just because there was no treatment for the disease at a particular point of time. Madhubala's case is in point. If we watch the old movies we get this indication. For example, in JUGNU (1946) Noor Jahan dies of T.B. There seemed to have been no cure then. It was a dreaded disease. Many old movies showed one or the other character suffering from this disease. (Geeta Bali died of Small Pox). Movies of the Seventies showed the plight of the terminable disease CANCER. And now we have AIDS - but this disease is not being projected because of the attached stigma. There was just one movie PHIR MILENGE where the heroine's (Shilpa Shetty) world turn upside down on learning that she has tested HIV Positive. That millions still die of T.B. is because of its newer deadlier form and because of AIDS. So when the cure for Cancer and AIDS is found in future, those future generations would come up with similar observations that so many lives have been lost in the past.

Now, coming back to Madhubala (now this one is like MUJHE YAAD HAI ZARA ZARA) is it true that during the last days of her illness before death Madhubala had come to Dilip Kumar's house?

NASIR.

Thanks my friend.

NASIR.

I am not sure about the fact, but going by all accounts Madhubala never got over Dilip Kumar, and had he accepted her, she would have gladly married him......she married Kishore Kumar only after Dilip and Saira got married...........To be fair to Dilip Kumar.....He is supposed to have gone to her film sets and asked her to go with him , that a qazi was waiting at his home to perform the 'Nikhaa', but she was too timid to do so, and could never go against her Father's wishes, so she is supposed to have refused, this broke his heart and all else that followed was because of his bitterness towards her....

That's a very pertinent info Reeth. Thanks.

It does appear that Dilip Kumar was truly in love with Madhubala. At this instance I'm reminded of a scene from MUGHAL-E-AZAM where Prince Salim slaps Anarkali thinking that the latter has betrayed him for wordly gains. And, despite the hard slap, she actually smiles knowingly, reassured of his passionate love. A similar real-life situation must have taken place between them.

NASIR.

Vanmala passed on 29th May in the age of 92 years. May God rest her soul in piece.

Thanks for highlighting this mahesh

Vanmala Devi was a winner of the President's Award for best actress...
Born as Susheela devi pawar in 1915,she adopted the screen name Vanmala devi and acted in several marathi and hindi films.

She began her film career at the age of 21, when she was already a graduate and teacher.Her dreamy eyes won her the role of Roxana in Minerva movietone's blockbuster"Sikander" starring Sohrab modi and Prithviraj kapoor.
She was a staunsh nationalist and deeply involved in the freedom movement...
Even at the age of 92, she was running a school to train children in traditional Indian arts and culture.
Vanmala, who had been suffering from cancer, had undergone an operation about three months ago.
She died in Gwalior on Tuesday, May 29th , 2007.
She is survived by a brother N.R.Pawar.....

PADMINI - ( June 12 1932 - September 24,2006)

Padmini was a Top star in Bollywood as well as four other regional cinemas...Tamil,Telugu,
Malayalam and Kannada...
Padmini's charisma as a dancer allowed her to cross all regional boundaries and she
excelled in many different styles from Bharatnatyam to Western.Along with Vyjayantimala
her South Indian compatriot, Padmini could also be credited with popularizing, refining and setting
the standard and expectation for Indian popular cinema's psuedo-classical style of dance,that after
them have become a virtual prerequisite of every Bollywood and Indian Popular film.
Born and raised in the Princelty stae of Travancore in Kerala,Padmini was the second daughter....
Her sisters Lalitha and Ragini were also renowned dancers and actresses, and the threesome were
popularly known as the Travancore sisters.They were the disciples of the noted Indian dancer
Guru Gopinath...
At the age of 17 Padmini was cast as the heroine of Kalpana(1950),Uday Shankar's dance extravaganza,
and after that she went on to act in films for nearly 40 years...








Padmini was renowned for her linguistic abilities and dubbed her own voice onto her movies in Tamil
Telugu,Malayalam and Hindi.This cross cultural linguistic ability made her a very significant figure in
the history of 20th century Indian cinema.
She co-starred with several of the most well known actors in Indian cinema...Sivaji Ganeshan,Prem
Nazir,Gemini Ganeshan,Raj Kapoor, MGR, Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutt,Dharmendra,Sanjeev Kumar...
She acted in nearly 550 films of which 400 were in Tamil...
In two of her most popular films 'Jis desh mein Ganga behti hai' and 'Mera naam joker' she was
paired against the legendary Raj Kapoor







Some of her memorable films

Kalpana(Dance drama)
Mr Sampath
Payal
Jis Desh mein ganga behti hai
Apsara
Aashiq
Raj Tilak
Qaidi
Singapore
Pardesi
Kalpana
Bindiya
Kaajal
Nanha farishta
Afsana
Aurat
Vaasna
Bhai bahen
Chanda aur Bijli




With Karunanidhi just a couple of days before her death..


Her Career best and Most famous film was Tillana Mohanambal in Tamil with Sivaji Ganeshan
She won a Filmfare award for the Best Supporting actress in the year 1966 for Kaajal
After her marriage in 1961 to a Doctor, Padmini focused on marriage and refiniing classical dance
She settled in the United States in 1977 and opened her classical Dance school in New Jersey called
The Padmini School of fine arts.Her school today is one of the largest Indian classical dance
institutions in the United States.
Her only son Prem Ramchandra works with Warner Bros.......



She had relocated to Chennai from New Jersey in June 2006 as she was keen on acting in some
quality films....however she died of a Heart attack in a hospital in Chennai on September 24,2006
leaving behind some memorable films in 5 languages.....

Thank you Reeth for the info and those lovely pictures of Padmini.
No doubt, she was a Legend in her own right. As far as the Hindi films are concerned, RK's JIS DESH ME.N GANGA BEHTI HAI was her best. When she sang (Lata's sexy number) O MAINE PYAAR KIYA...heaving her breasts, (RK's favourite close-up shots...) the audience went wild. She would have won the prestigious Film Fare Award but lost out to Vyjantimala's powerful performance in GANGA JUMNA.

NASIR.

Most welcome Nasir.....Padmini has done quite a few such numbers in Mera naam Joker, Chanda aur bijli,Kajal,Nanha farishta ..........I have seen a lot of her Tamil movies and believe me, she is a fantastic actress , has never been tapped here by the hindi film directors,a pity....

Reeth I doubt the accuracies in these posts. Kindly recheck your resources:

Madhubala's beauty was legendary. The film star Nadira, whom Mahboob Khan
introduced in the first Indian colour film Aan, said of her, "She was like
a fairy descended from the skies. There was such dignity to her beauty,
which was what placed her in a class distinct and apart from others who
bear good looks". Begum Para who used to take morning walks with her said,
"If you saw her face the first thing in the morning as the sun rose, you
felt happy for the entire day. She was like a dream of exceeding
loveliness". Nimmi recalled that when she first saw Madhubala on a movie
set, she could not sleep that night. She just kept wondering if what she
had seen was real or if it was an illusion or perhaps it was an angel come
to earth.

Madhubala came to the movies as a child star and she kept working till the
end, bearing on her shoulders the entire financial burden of family
support. Her father, who kept hawk-like control on her life , also put her
money into wasteful ventures, including an unfinished screen disaster
called Pathan which he directed and which sank without trace. Madhubala by
then was too sick to star in it. He had earlier squandered her money by
launching five other movies that were never completed. He was such a tyrant
that he did not permit her to attend a dinner arranged during a film
festival where Frank Capra was present because he said, “She does not know
how to eat with a knife and fork.” It is hard to imagine that this
heartthrob of millions was a defenceless young woman tyrannised over by a
harsh father ( In classical
psycho-analysis, the memories and experiences become psychic themes
and acquire a dynamism of their own. They can invoke experiences
and by and large determine the direction in one's life. Some recent
researchers regard these early childhood experiences as the process
of "hardwiring" of the human computer. Whichever way it is described,
the point is that childhood experiences, particularly interpersonal relationships
in one's household, command a dominant place in the way a person chooses
to live her life. A daughter's life is considerably affected by her experiences
with her father such that in some cases she cannot rid herself of his influence
for the rest of her life. Madhu Bala's case appears to be typical).

Madhubala was in love with Dilip Kumar, and he with her, but Ataullah Khan
stood like a wall in their way. He did not want her to get married because
he would have thereby lost all the money that she earned. When the two,
Dilip and Madhubala, were cast for the movie Naya Daur, Ataullah Khan laid
down the condition that his daughter would not go for outdoor shooting. He
had earlier decreed that she would not do night shooting. The director of
Naya Daur, B.R. Chopra, wanted the unit to travel to Bhopal, but Ataullah
Khan put his foot down and even said that the entire thing was a ruse to
give Dilip the opportunity to entice away his daughter. Finally, in
desperation, Chopra sued Madhubala for fraudulently obtaining an advance
from him for a project she had no intention of completing. He also sacked
Madhubala and brought in the South Indian bombshell Vijayntimala to replace
her.

The litigation was nasty and Dilip Kumar appeared as a witness for the
prosecution against Madhubala and said some very bitter things about her in
open court. While Dilip was testifying against her, she turned to her
lawyer R.D. Chadha and said, “I don’t believe this is the man who was so in
love with me and whom I loved more than anyone and anything in the world.”
The film Naya Daur was released while the case was still in court and it
was an instant hit, including the music scored by O.P. Nayyar. Feeling
triumphant, Chopra withdrew the case.

Madhubala made one last attempt to reach out to Dilip. She asked their
mutual friend, the movie journalist Bunny Robin, to go to Dilip and tell
him how despite the court case, she still loved him. The moment Robin
mentioned why he was there, Dilip jumped at him angrily. “What rubbish.
What love?!” He was not even prepared to hear her name. Feeling lost and
rejected, Madhubala once and for he only time in her life defied her father
and married Kishore Kumar. It was a disastrous marriage and it never worked.

Nature had given her unparalleled beauty; but it had also left a hole in
her heart which in the 1960s was considered a condition that could not be
repaired. Ironically, the hole that Dilip, the only man she ever loved,
left in her heart, was even bigger and perhaps what brought the short and
tragic life of this lovely woman to an early end was not what nature had
wrought but what the man she loved had done. She lies in the Santa Cruz
graveyard in Bombay, where among others, lies Muhammad Rafi and even
Ataullah Khan who can no longer tyrannise over her. She rests in peace at
last, still mourned by many.

Mahesh i got this info from an article by Syed Badrul Ahsan...A hole in her heart...biography of Madhubala,is available on the net...